French Defense: St. George Defense, Traditional Line
1. e4 e6 2. d4 a6 3. Nf3 b5 4. Bd3 c5 5. c3 Bb7 6. O-O Nf6
The French Defense: St. George Defense, Traditional Line is a chess opening classified as ECO C00, reached after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 a6 3. Nf3 b5 4. Bd3 c5 5. c3 Bb7 6. O-O Nf6. It is a line of the French Defense. White is to move.
This exact move order didn't appear in our sample of 12.6 million Lichess games: it's a rare line.
Engine evaluation: +0.82 (Stockfish, depth 50; best line 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. e5 Nd5 9. a4 Nc6)
- ECO
- C00
- Moves
- 12 plies
- FEN
rn1qkb1r/1b1p1ppp/p3pn2/1pp5/3PP3/2PB1N2/PP3PPP/RNBQ1RK1 w kq - 3 7- PGN
1. e4 e6 2. d4 a6 3. Nf3 b5 4. Bd3 c5 5. c3 Bb7 6. O-O Nf6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Master games
3 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 67%, draw 33%, Black 0%). The strongest:
- IM Richard S. Jones (2393) – Juan Campos Calvo-Sotelo (1978) 1-0 · 11th Gibraltar Masters · 2013-01-22
- O'Toole, G. (2204) – Juan Campos Calvo-Sotelo (1978) 1-0 · 11th Gibraltar Masters · 2013-01-28
Search all games of the French Defense: St. George Defense, Traditional Line and its sub-variations
Comes from
French Defense: St. George Defense 1. e4 e6 2. d4 a6
More French Defense lines (all)
- French Defense (1. e4 e6) C00
- French Defense (2. d4 d5) C00
- French Defense: Alapin Gambit C00
- French Defense: Baeuerle Gambit C00
- French Defense: Banzai-Leong Gambit C00
- French Defense: Banzai-Leong Gambit, Pinova Gambit C00
- French Defense: Bird Invitation C00
- French Defense: Carlson Gambit C00
- French Defense: Chigorin Variation C00
- French Defense: Diemer-Duhm Gambit C00
- French Defense: Diemer-Duhm Gambit Accepted C00
- French Defense: Franco-Hiva Gambit C00
Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.